Sometime in this column, we acknowledged that culture plays a significant role in the development of a society. Closely linked to culture is the issue of human resources. Frankly, the quality of a human resource is largely defined by the culture of the people in a given society. One wonders how Africans will cope with technological and economic developments in a world that is changing rapidly if drastic steps are not taken to build human capital.
In any knowledge-driven economy, knowledge is often embodied in human capital in the form of labour skills, management expertise, general experience and practical knowledge. If one may ask: What then is the quality of Africans in general and Nigerians in particular, from a standpoint of modern society in which manufacturing industries are expected to be dominant? Without any iota of doubt, the motive force in the technological and economic development processes is human capital. One of the ways of building human capital is through education which accelerates the pace of invention and productivity.
Any business environment that does not support production and productivity through extant laws, improvement in technology, consistent government policies, market, and socio-economic trends will stifle development. Productivity which is a measure of efficiency and a key determinant of long term development is increased if workers produce more for the same or less time, effort or resources. Increased productivity is either achieved through better ways of working or the use of more and improved technology. These are conditions that are just gaining grounds in the African continent.
For many years, most African countries have consistently produced the worst-performing economies with some experiencing negative economic growth. So while developed and newly industrialising countries are getting richer by the day, some development experts say that most African countries are getting poorer relatively and absolutely. One will not agree less with views expressed by experts after a study of the report recently released by World Bank titled “Future of Work in Africa: Harnessing the potential of digital technologies for all.”
The report is structured around the human capital needs of a young and rapidly growing largely low-skilled labour force, the prevalence of informal workers and enterprises and the social protection policies to mitigate risks resulting from disruptions to labour markets. This writer is concerned about the substance of the report particularly what was reflected under the heading: “Investment in early childhood development- A bottleneck to building human capital.”
Paraphrasing this aspect of the report, with nearly 130 million children under the age of six Africa is already lagging in building foundational skills, which is responsible for bottlenecks in building and developing advanced skills for the future. The report shows that the quality of education at the primary and secondary levels is abysmally low such that: “In 6 out of 10 countries in the region, nearly 40 percent of the students, by the time they reach grade 4, cannot read a single letter, 70 percent cannot read a paragraph, a staggering 90 percent cannot read a complete paragraph, and only 5 percent can solve a mathematical word problem.”
On teachers, the report has it that they teach too little at the fundamental level, and even when they do teach, they lack the instructional knowledge and skills to teach effectively.
“On average, about 6 percent of teachers possess 80 percent of the knowledge equivalent to a fourth grader and only a paltry 7 percent possess the minimum requisite knowledge for teaching, based on a survey of teachers in primary schools in seven countries in the region (representing 40 percent of the region’s population). Only 11 percent of the teachers surveyed could interpret data in a graph, and only 15 percent could solve a difficult math story problem.”
Additionally, only 31 percent of the teachers surveyed understand Venn Diagrams, and only 35 percent can solve algebra. Although, gross enrolment in primary education is rapidly expanding, the primary education sector, largely managed by the public sector, is weakly governed and so the quality remains poor, according to the report.
The report says that 41 percent of adults in Nigeria are illiterate, 51 percent of Ethiopians and 81 percent in Niger. With a population of almost 200 million, one can say that Nigeria is graciously endowed with human resources. Most Nigerians have misconstrued the country’s large population to be synonymous with generous human resource endowment. It has not really dawned on us that the development of any nation depends on the quality and quality of those gifted rather than mere physique of the people.
The notion that Nigerians are hardworking needs to be interrogated against the backdrop of the nation’s human capital; as measured by health, education and quality of standard of living. Considering the health, education and quality of standard of living of our citizens, one can say without any fear of contradiction that the country’s stock of human capital has not performed satisfactorily. That is why Nigeria is ranked 157 out of 188 countries in the 2019 Human Capital Index of the World Bank.
Some subjective evidence may suffice here to support the argument that the quality of our human capital is not above acceptable threshold. Bearing in mind abysmal performance in education, health and standing of living of citizens, how is Nigeria preparing its citizens to be part of the fourth industrial revolution? (To be continued).
Please, note that in seeking other alternatives to meet local dairy production in Nigeria, the National Animal Production Research Institute (NAPRI), Zaria is the appropriate research institute, not the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) as erroneously stated in my last article published in this column on Tue, 13 August 2019. The error is highly regretted.
MA Johnson
